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Old 02-07-2020, 07:48 AM   #1
hcobb
 
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Default Do ghosts bound to their own staves retain the Mana they had in life?

You want an intelligent sword with its own agenda that can do a few bits of magic each day? Bang, there it is.

Note with ST zero they can only regain one point of Mana by spending 8 hours in mediation (or by using Drain ST), but being undead they don't sleep as per ITL 23 so they regain 3 Mana every 24 hours when not disturbed.
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Old 02-07-2020, 09:09 AM   #2
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Default Re: Do ghosts bound to their own staves retain the Mana they had in life?

This sounds like something that would be a unique scenario. Not sure it needs a formal rule unless you plan to create a whole set of new mechanics around 'ghost binding' (which could be very interesting).
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Old 02-07-2020, 09:41 AM   #3
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Default Re: Do ghosts bound to their own staves retain the Mana they had in life?

While clever and not unreasonable, and I'm sure people could enjoy handling them this way, I think GMs aren't required to look for such an explanation to give ghosts abilities (or to have whatever artifacts they want), nor do I think these are intended or the way I'd naturally interpret what's written.

So, if I may offer other another views for contrast without coming off as bursting your bubble:

I've rarely wanted there to be weapons which were intelligent, or which had their own agendas, or could cast spells. Rarer even than I've been interested in having ghosts in TFT games, which has been extremely rare.

The vanishingly few times I have been intrigued by a description of an intelligent sword, it was in a savagely overpowered adventure for another game system, and my interest was about what it would be like to mix the down-to-earth rationality and typical power levels of TFT with crazy powerful-but-deadly-and-subversive magic as found in such adventures.

In those cases, however, it seems like the intelligent swords hadn't been staves that were now haunted by their dead wizards. The games with such adventures seem usually not even to have any explanation for how magic items (or monsters, or traps, or much anything) exist, or the explanation is supernatural, the mystical hyper-magical underworld materializes adventure stuff itself, or something similar. In TFT, I'd think they'd be enchanted by some very powerful wizards. But your idea is interesting.

I think the RAW ghost description default is that plain ghosts just can't cast spells. The generic ghost description says it can't harm except by scaring.

If a TFT ghost wizard did haunt its staff as a natural consequence of the TFT rules, and have its TFT-wizard spells available it seems to me that'd tend to be rather unlike any of the intelligent swords I've seen from other sources. It'd be rather like there being a wizard (with typical wizard spells...) that was rather hard to identify or kill. As you point out, mana would be quite a limited resource for it.

So that seems more to me like a ghost which can cast spells (I'd call that a variant of the usual TFT ghosts) and which can use its staff.

To get an "intelligent sword", I'd think it'd be about conjuring or imprisoning some other spirit into an enchanted item using researched spells and enchantments, and perhaps Geas on the spirit to get it to behave as intended (though then someone might think to dispel the Geas on someone else's sword, freeing the spirit to behave differently). But I'd want definitions of how it's possible for an object to communicate, and what such a spirit can actually do. Maybe a way for the holder to give their ST to the spirit.

If a spirit does Drain ST, what's its capacity to do so, if it has no ST itself? RAW, seems like zero to me, since the spell description just says it restores fatigue.
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Old 08-07-2021, 03:06 PM   #4
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Default Re: Do ghosts bound to their own staves retain the Mana they had in life?

Bumping up the Ghost Staff due to the Fanzine Trip mention.

Note that ITL 148 implies some sort of relationship between Drain ST and Mana recharge.
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Old 06-28-2022, 07:48 PM   #5
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Default Re: Do ghosts bound to their own staves retain the Mana they had in life?

Steve Jackson wrote rules for this in 1984. In an article for a story in Fantasy Gamer #4 p 28.

He wrote up a Bind Spirit spell (IQ 13), Thrown Spell, but I could not identify any Creation Point or XP cost for the spell, nor how much fatigue is used to power it.

It is known to work on all 4 elementals, Ghosts, Wights, Djinns, Lesser Demons and Greater Demons. I'm sure it will work on the spirits, souls and other things from the Book of Unlife as well.

When the spell is cast on any spirit, that spirit gets a 4d saving roll vs IQ. A successful roll means that the spirit has escaped trapping. (In the case of an elemental that was already controlled, the spirit immediately escapes control as well.). Large elementals (over ST 20) and all other spirits will immediately attack the wizard who attempted to trap them; small elementals will flee.


Most things/items can receive a bound spirit. Example:
A WIGHT Sword does +3 damage. In battle, it looks like a flaming sword. Can speak, but often lies. Does double damage to creatures harmed by fire. Cannot control minds, but will constantly try to persuade its owner to help it complete its purpose or quest that originally turned it into a wight.
And in the same article, he gave stats for Djinns, a powerful spirit, similar in some ways to a demon, but basically good in nature. And they can do magic. He also gave stats for a Djinn Sword and a Genie in a bottle.
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Old 06-29-2022, 06:00 AM   #6
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Default Re: Do ghosts bound to their own staves retain the Mana they had in life?

The binding comes from:

ITL 84 "Most ghosts are tied to a fairly limited place; some are tied
to an object instead"

And the personal nature of the Staff at ITL 18 and 148
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Old 07-04-2022, 10:53 PM   #7
David Bofinger
 
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Default Re: Do ghosts bound to their own staves retain the Mana they had in life?

Quote:
Originally Posted by Skarg View Post
I've rarely wanted there to be weapons which were intelligent, or which had their own agendas, or could cast spells.
I've come to hate the magic weapon: it's bland and eliminates much of the incentive for a character to increase ST. But an intelligent sword sounds a lot more interesting, for several reasons.
  • It provides a natural reason for the sword to have a finite association with a PC: when the job is done the sword's soul passes on, etc. Because it's only around for a while it stays fresh and interesting, and can be made powerful without long-term unbalancing.
  • The PC has to worry about keeping the sword happy, rather than the sword being an obedient tool. If there's too many side quests the sword may get obstreperous and become a -3 sword instead of +3.
  • Personality is better for roleplaying than non-personality.

I think in future I'll make all my magic weapons temporary and with personality.
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Old 07-07-2022, 08:37 AM   #8
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Default Re: Do ghosts bound to their own staves retain the Mana they had in life?

I've sent in rules for capture spirit, and if I were to extend these I'd make enchantments that bind a captured spirit to a given use as saw a magic sword.


These items would then be powered by the fatigue of the spirit, and hence only rechargeable by rest.
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